forward by the busy excitement of the time. The speeches of the greater part have been lost to posterity, but the historians enable us to form some judgment of their characters. 20. Dem'ades was originally a common sailor, possessing strong natural powers, which, however, were unpolished by education, and unregulated by moral principle. In private life, his habits were coarse and brutal, and his eloquence was also tinctured with these qualities, but his rude bluntness many times produced a greater effect in the public assemblies than the polished elegance of more refined speakers. 21. Hyper'ides was a speaker of quite an opposite cast; he possessed an exquisite taste, a delicate sense of harmony, and a richly cultivated mind: but excessive refinement is often more injurious than the total want of cultivation; his delicate sensibility rendered him timid and effeminate; he had not sufficient energy and daring to encounter the storms of the public assemblies, but at the law courts he was an able and pleasing advocate. 22. Phoc'ion and Lycurgus seem to have owed their influence rather to their virtuous characters than their oratorical abilities. They were always heard with respect, because it was known that they always spoke from conscientious conviction, and they were consequently more valued as statesmen than admired as orators. 23. Dinar'chus is only known as the accuser of Demos'thenes, on the charge of having received a bribe from the fugitive Har'palus, to engage the Athenians to protect him from the vengeance of Alexander. The truth of the charge is very doubtful, but it is urged in the invective of Dinar'chus with great art and spirit. The virulence and violence of the attack, however, detract greatly from the merits of the oration. 24. Æs'chines was a much more formidable rival of Demos'thenes; he wants, indeed the boldness and vehe mence of his opponent, but his style is more varied and ornamented. To use the quaint illustration of Quinctil'ian, Es'chines has more flesh and muscle, Demos'thenes more bone and sinew." His style is flowing and harmonious, his periods exquisitely polished, and his ridicule very spirited and graceful. At any other period he would probably have obtained the highest eminence, but he was borne down by the superior talents of his illustrious opponent. Æs'chines was the avowed partisan of Phil'ip, though at first one of his most vigorous opponents. This desertion of the patriotic party rendered him unpopular, and induced him to cultivate the favour of his audience by rhetorical artifices, rather than noble sentiments, which, indeed, he sometimes pretended to ridicule, as forced and affected. 25. With the destruction of the popular forms of government, terminated the list of Grecian orators. They were succeeded by the rhetoricians, who introduced an artificial and florid style of speaking, calculated rather to please the fancy than animate the heart, or convince the judgment. 26. Even before the commencement of Demos'thenes' career, Isoc'rates had set the example of preparing orations, designed as specimens of elegant composition, and having no reference to public affairs. His panegyrical orations are remarkable for their simplicity and dignity, but they want the life and vigour which the necessity of delivering them in public could alone supply. Compared with the speeches of Demosthenes, they are like a statue of Hercules contrasted with the living hero; they possess all the features, and all the symmetry of eloquence, but they are dead, cold, and unimpassioned. 27. The Athenian schools of eloquence continued to flourish under the direction of the rhetoricians, until a very late period. Thither the young Roman nobility flocked to receive instruction, and on their return home, introduced the Grecian oratory into Latium. It was not, U however, possible for any teacher to communicate the powers and skill of Demosthenes; instead of his severe and nervous style, the Latins adopted the florid ornamental eloquence which is commonly named the Asiatic style, and which, as has been already mentioned, came into favour after the decline of Grecian freedom. Questions. 1. What is the usual commencement of national history? 2. Who was Herodotus ? 3. On what subject did he write? 4. What is the character of his history? 5. How did Thucydides attract the notice of Herodotus ? 6. Of what period did Thucydides write his history? 7. What is the character of his work? 8. How did Demosthenes show his admiration of Thucydides ? 9. Who was Xenophon? 10. What histories did he write? 11. For what are his compositions remarkable? 12. Why was oratory so extensively cultivated by the Athenians? 13. From what cause were the Athenians made remarkable for their good taste in eloquence? 14. What was the character of Pericles as an orator? 15. Was Alcibiades as honourably distinguished as his uncle ? 16. What are the characters of Lysias and Isæus ? 17. What great crisis roused the energies of Demosthenes ? 18. For what are his orations chiefly remarkable? 19. What was the character of his audience? 20. Who was Demades? 21. For what was Hyperides remarkable? 22. How did Phocion and Lycurgus acquire influence in the assemblies of the people? 23. What is known of Dinarchus ? 24. What was the character of Eschines ? 25. Did any change take place in Grecian oratory after the liberties of the people were destroyed? 26. What was the character of Isocrates? 27. What style of eloquence was taught in the Athenian schools? 1. It has been remarked, with some justice, that "the Greeks, though giants in the fine arts, were pigmies in the exact sciences." The lively and fanciful disposition of the nation indisposed them to that patient research, and careful observation, which is absolutely necessary for making scientific discoveries. It is not therefore remarkable, that the best Grecian writers on scientific subjects were generally natives of the commercial colonies; the regularity of habits that prevails in every trading population prepared the mind for close investigation, and prevented that distraction of thought which is at once a cause and a consequence of the cultivation of elegant literature. 2. The Chaldæ'ans and Egyptians were the first nations of antiquity that cultivated science. The former, while tending their flocks by night, were soon accustomed to note the appearances of the heavenly bodies, and thus, in course of time, they collected the elements of the first rude system of astronomy. The fertility of Egypt depending on the annual overflowings of the Nile, the attention of the inhabitants was soon attracted to the celestial signs that marked the changes of the seasons, and predicted the approach of the periodical inundation. 3. They accordingly extended the observations of the Chaldæans, and greatly improved the science, by which their rustic labours were regulated. The waters on these occasions effaced the land-marks, which determined the boundaries of estates, and the consequent confusion which ensued after the inundation had subsided, induced them to search for some means by which the extent of each person's possessions might be ascertained. This gave rise to the invention of Geometry, which as the name implies, was originally limited to the measurement of the earth, but soon became the science which explains the properties and relations of figured space'. 4. Tha'les, a native of Mile'tus in the Asiatic colonies, was the first who introduced the sciences of the East into Greece. He first taught the true shape of the earth, explained the nature of eclipses, and accurately foretold one solar eclipse. He first divided the heavens into five zones, and recommended the division of the year into 365 days, which he had learned from the Egyptians. He died 548 B. C. 5. The Ionic school of philosophy which he founded, was remarkable for the cultivation of the mathematical sciences; Anaximan'der, his successor, was the first that constructed globes and maps, and Meton discovered the cycle of nineteen years, called after his name, when the courses of the sun and moon again begin from the same point of the heavens. The true system of the universe is supposed to have been originally taught in the Ionic school, but from its apparent inconsistency with the evidence of the senses it was subsequently rejected. 6. Pythagoras was the most remarkable, perhaps, of all the ancient philosophers; his moral and theological opinions will be better discussed in the next chapter, here we have only to regard his acquirements in mathematics and 1 It is derived from yn, the earth, and μɛrpew, to measure. |